As 2014 comes to a close, the hospital industry has had to come to terms with, address, and evolve through some interesting changes in the healthcare industry. For example, with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and the gradual transition away from fee-for-service healthcare, hospitals “are becoming true health systems; they are buying physician practices, ambulatory centers, diagnostic centers, home care services, and durable medical equipment and wellness companies.” Becker’s Hospital Review recently did an analysis of the past year in the hospital industry, and highlighted the top fifty facts to understand. As that article’s author, Shannon Barnet, states, “As the healthcare industry is ever-changing, hospitals must constantly be ready to evolve and adapt.” With that in mind, Barnet reviewed the major trends and changes to the industry, focusing on such areas as hospital staffing practices, demographics, workforce compensation data, and more. Here are 14 highlights relevant to the locum tenens industry, which is primed to help hospitals and other healthcare organizations staff through these transitions:
“Hospitals by the Numbers”
1. There are roughly 4,007 hospitals in the U.S., according to the most recent American Hospital Directory data based on the most recent Medicare cost reports.
2. There are approximately 2.6 staffed hospital beds per 1,000 people in the U.S., 1.7 of which are nonprofit hospital beds, according to the most recent Kaiser Family Foundation data from 2012.
3. Forty-three rural hospitals, with more than a combined 1,500 beds, have closed from 2010 through November of this year, according to North Carolina Rural Health Research Program data in USA Today.
4. The number of hospital mergers and acquisitions remained the same in the second and third quarters of this year, with nine transactions taking place during both quarters, according to a recent Irving Levin Associates report.
5. Hospital merger and acquisition activity decreased by 61 percent between the third quarter of 2013 and the same time frame this year.
“Workforce and Compensation”
6. According to a study on hospital staffing trends by Billian’s HealthDATA, hospitals have increasingly sought outside their organization for executive hires. Outside candidates have made up 60 percent of executive hospital placements, as opposed to 40 percent internal promotions.
7. Across all specialties, approximately 21 percent of physicians are employed by a hospital.
8. Hospitals added roughly 3,500 jobs in October, according to the most recent jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
9. The median turnover of physicians in adult hospitalist groups was eight percent, with 38.1 percent of the groups indicating no physician turnover. For pediatric hospitalist groups, the median turnover was zero; 63.2 percent of the groups had no physician leaving the group, according to the Society of Hospital Medicine’s 2014 State of Hospital Medicine report.
10. Hospitalists are expanding to responsibilities outside the inpatient environment with 25.4 percent of groups seeing patients in post-acute care facilities and 13.3 percent doing some outpatient care, according to the SHM report.
11. The primary care physician shortage remains a concern for 68.3 percent of hospital C-suite executives, with concerns being higher in the northeast/mid-Atlantic (70.4 percent) and the southeast (73.3 percent) regions.
12. Sixty-seven percent of the 51.6 million hospital-based services in 2012 were provided by hospitalists as opposed to traditionalists (primary care physicians and others whose services primarily take place outside an acute-care facility), according to an analysis of Medicare payment data.
13. The number of hospitals and healthcare facilities that have reported using locum tenens physicians increased to 90 percent in 2013 from 73.6 percent in 2012, according to a Staff Care survey.
14. Since 2012, the median salary for non-academic adult hospitalists has increased 8.2 percent annually, from $233,855 to $252,996. Hospitalists at non-academic pediatric hospitals saw a median compensation increase of 9.5 percent, from $178,885 to $195,832, over the past two years.
For further information, and the rest of the top 50 things to know about the hospital industry, please visit http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/lists/50-things-to-know-about-the-hospital-industry-2014.html.
